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JenB88
Participant
October 21, 2013
Answered

Converting Publisher files to InDesign

  • October 21, 2013
  • 3 replies
  • 81426 views

I'm currently searching for a cost efficient and reliable way to convert Publisher files to InDesign. Any suggestions for converting these files would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Barb Binder

They offer a file conversion service: File Conversion Service | Markzware

3 replies

J
jamieb98014406
Participant
January 3, 2016

‌I sometime get publisher files sent to me from clients. Makes me feel awkward to ask them to either supply printed copies or PDFs to me to recreate as I don't have publisher on my Mac. But I found this online paid (but cheap) service To convert one-off files easily. http://www.convertquarktoindesign.com/shop/convert-microsoft-publisher-to-indesign/

You can also convert quark files to indesign as well as well as a few other file types

Was DYP
Was DYP
Inspiring
October 21, 2013

A lower cost but more painful way is to create a pdf of the Publisher files open in Illistrator and them copy and paste into Indesign. May be a lot of work or not depending on how complex the document is.

Or edit the file in Illustrator and place in ID if you need to.

E
Community Expert
Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 21, 2013

Illustrator is not a multipurpose PDF editor. In any way, shape or form.

It would be better to use Acrobat.

Save the file as a RTF - delete all the imagery from the RTF in Word

Extract all the Images/Diagrams/Graphics from the PDF using the Edit Object command.

Raster images will open in Photoshop and Vector in Illustrator (can be setup up through Acrobat preferences)

Reassemble the layout in InDesign.

But whatever you do *Don't open the PDF in Illustrator. And don't start copying and pasting from Illustrator to InDesign*

Do it right - or else face headaches down the road later on.

    Steve Werner
    Community Expert
    Steve WernerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 21, 2013

    The Markzware PUB2ID product is the only I know that does a conversion:

    http://markzware.com/products/pub2id/

    R
    Rickyaz
    Known Participant
    January 4, 2015

    $ 200 FOR A CONVERTER !! They must be comedians.   You're better off just copying and pasting the text into Indesign.   JEEZE.   

      Dov Isaacs
      Dov Isaacs
      Legend
      January 4, 2015

      Quite frankly, I have no financial or any other interest in Markzware, but how much do you value your own time? Do you have any idea how much work it takes to develop software to convert a file in Publisher's format with its set of features to a file in InDesign's format with an overlapping but not identical set of features? And this is for a very limited market! It would take quite a few sales of $200 licenses in a very limited market to recoup the cost of developing such software!

      If this software does a fairly respectable job of converting the Publisher file to InDesign and saves you three or four hours in rebuilding a document from scratch with cut and paste, $200 is not a steep price to pay!

      Again, it all depends on how much you value your time and what else you could be doing with time wasted in a file regeneration exercise.

                - Dov

      - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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